[Segundus]
“My Liege,” two knights bow before me. The one speaking is quivering with fear while the second knight remains prostrated before the throne, his head arms and chest flat against the cold, hard, slate floor.
The first knight hesitates. He knows he has to deliver bad news, I can tell by the stink of fear emanating off of him and how his body collapses when he kneels before me, his head tapping the floor.
“Report,” my voice is neutral, my face is blank, but I’m already seething. I am glad my queen is not here to see what will happen next, because I cannot promise I can contain my anger once whatever this worm has to say has come spilling from his lips like rancid food.
[Ona] “You cannot kill him yet,” Daax reminds me as he holds me to his chest. His scent is returning to its familiar mix of burnt caramel and sand, and I feel myself easing into his embrace. I had just seen him walk around one of our survivors as if he was a trinket on the ground and I wanted to throttle him so badly that I found it hard to force a smile onto my face as he led me to the captain’s quarters. “I can’t do this, Aegir. I want to see him twitching on the ground.” “I’ll hold him down for you,” Daax agrees. “But we need to know what he is planning. We need to know to keep our people safe.”
[Primus] No matter what I try, I cannot keep her warm. Carnelia is shivering, her whole body shaking, and I’m not sure what I can do, other than hold her, to help calm her body. She needs food, water, and rest, things she cannot get while we are trapped inside of this secret cavern waiting for the Imperium forces to forget us. Which of course they never will. I send out a thread of thought to my mother through our bands. Through her I get a sense that our babies are safe, which is a relief, but that she is also worried about us, unable to get to us as she is. If Carnelia were just able to transform into her
[Segundus] The wailing of the court was loud and seemed to go on forever. Every dragon on the court was on their knees, tears streaming down their faces. Every human slave lies on the ground in deep prostration. Soon their fate would be upon them, and these moments of utter sadness. Soon they will be lighting the very funeral pyres that they will jump on gratefully in tribute to a lost, irreplaceable soul Because King Maximus Majere, ruler of Luxandra and the surrounding colonies, is dead. [The Night Before]
[Carnelia] “AHHHH!” I scream in joy as Queen Cressida stomps into the room. “PRIMUS THELONIUS MAJERE!” his mother sounds stern. “Of all the ridiculous places to land, you bring your mate HERE! Are you insane?” “Ah, Mother,” he replies calmly, unphased by the anger of his mother who glows like a vengeful goddess. “I’m glad you found us. I was worried when you didn’t respond. I’ve been trying to contact you for days.” “I was where you should have been, at home in the Celestial Kingdom, making sure your babies were secure. I’ve
[Ona] As soon as we notice the ship, Daax and race towards the stairs leading to the hold, only to see several Imperium soldiers are already on board. They must have been hiding while we all boarded and got comfortable. Strapped to their belts each one of them has the collars we use to keep a dragon in human form, ready to cuff us all to prepare for transport. “Imperial worms,” I curse under my breath. Any drake who serves in my father’s army is no real drake at all. Especially the ones who have no problem cuffing and containing helpless injured dragons who have done nothing wrong other than exist. As soon as the path is clear, Daax and I make our way into the shadowed corners of
[Eleanora] A thousand years from now, when the memory of the world that was long ago fades away into the knowledge of the world that is to come, our children and our grandchildren will ask, “Where were you during the great blackout? Where were you when the stars fell?” Our eyes, cloudy with age, will look to the horizon as we remember how it was a dark night, a night without a moon, with the stars twinkling brightly above our heads. The wind was warm with the first kiss of summer, the chill of spring slowly fading as the sound of young birds filled the night. Everything was ordinary, as it should be. A night without surprises. Until we saw the first star fall. And then another, and then
[Carnelia] The flight North was a lot longer than any of us expected. I know how to fly, barely, thanks to Ona being such an amazing big sister and mentor, but that doesn’t mean I have the stamina to fly any type of great distance. My back is sore only a couple of hours into our flight, and by the time we land for lunch, I am barely able to move. This means Primus ends up having to carry me, which we only manage by having him in full dragon form, while he carries me as a human. This allows us to maintain speed, but it also increases the amount of energy he needs to consume. But instead of eating a dragon's amount of fuel, he has been pausing, shifting back into half-dragon form, and only eating what he needs for that size, which doesn't match what he needs to eat to keep his larger body going. I know he is trying to keep his ration the same as before to make sure there is enough for everyone in the party, but he is doing so at his own expense. Unfortunately, between managing our
[Ona] The fighting has stopped. We are vastly outnumbered. Thankfully, the Imperium soldiers on board were given orders to stun and contain us, not shoot to kill. Even so, we lost more than a handful of sun dragons to the battle that ensued. Including Daax and myself, the number of resistance fighters on the boat is down to 36. Four days ago, at the start of this adventure, we had more than 60. By the time we reached the end of the tunnel, we numbered 42. I try not to think of all the bodies we lost during the evacuation of Segundus’ lab. So many had never awakened when released from the pods--and there had been hundreds of them. Drakes, drakaina, and some little more than hatchlings. Watching them die as they took their first free breaths in decades is a memory I will torment me for all the remaining moments of my life. There were more bodies on the ground than walked out of that room. I have been fighting this battle against the Imperium for the last four decades but on